Garlic baguettes takes the humble French stick and elevates it into a crispy, buttery, garlicky masterpiece. They’re perfect for dunking in soup or for moping up leftover sauce from lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.
They’re simple to make: simply cut open a plain baguette lengthways or slice it hasselback style, then smear in lots of herby garlic butter and maybe some grated cheese. Ten minutes or so in the oven is just enough time to serve up the rest of your meal.
An easier option is to pick up one from the supermarket where they can cost as little as 36p – but are they any good? Holly Kintuka decided to find out and compared garlic baguettes from Aldi, Asda, Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
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Her taste test revealed there were several good options, with two supermarkets offering packs of two garlic baguettes at incredibly low prices, reports the Express. However, she wasn’t impressed with them all – and the most expensive turned out to be her least favourite.
⭐ Aldi
Cost: 70p Score: 4/10
Holly said: “Aldi’s version wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t great. It had a decent amount of butter, but would’ve still benefited from much more. I also thought it needed way more garlic to improve it. I most likely wouldn’t purchase it again, and that’s just based on the fact that there are many other options that I thought were much better.”
ALDI: Quite nice but needed more garlic (Image: Holly Kintuka)⭐ Asda
Cost: 36p Score: 8.5/10
Holly said: “Now, Asda’s one really surprised me because I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It had a generous amount of garlic, herbs and butter. Had a delicious crunch all around it, and didn’t get dry after multiple bites either. I would happily stock up on this garlic baguette and its price makes it even better.”
ASDA: The cheapest baguette tested but remarkably good (Image: Holly Kintuka)
⭐ Lidl
Cost: 72p Score: 7/10
Lidl’s garlic baguette had a good amount of butter, garlic and herbs, but it wasn’t perfect. Holly said: “It did take slightly longer to cook than the other baguettes and the butter made it slightly greasy which then prevented it from having a nice crunch like the others did.” Despite preferring some of the others, she would definitely buy it again – and two baguettes for 72p is a bargain.
LIDL: The two-pack is incredibly good value (Image: Holly Kintuka)⭐ Marks and Spencer
Cost: £1.30 Score: 2/10
Holly said: “This was the only one that that I thought I probably wouldn’t buy again. It was unfortunately very dry, and didn’t have enough butter whatsoever; there was no flavour to it either. I was actually quite disappointed by it as a whole.”
M&S: A surprisingly poor offering that lacked flavour (Image: Holly Kintuka)⭐ Sainsbury’s
Cost: £1 Score: 10/10
Holly said: “Now, Sainsbury’s didn’t disappoint at all. They did not shy away from the butter, it was a baguette of buttery goodness. It was so buttery that one side did get slightly greasy, but I didn’t mind because it was so delicious. I also loved how garlicky and herby it was, the flavour honestly burst through. And the other side that didn’t have the butter seep through did have a nice crunch. I couldn’t fault this one at all.”
SAINSBURY’S: Herby and garlicky and totally delicious (Image: Holly Kintuka)⭐ Tesco
Cost: £1 Score: 9/10
Holly said: “Tesco did a great job with their garlic baguette. First of all, the bite of the baguette which had no garlic, herb or butter itself was even enjoyable. Now for the parts that did have the garlic herby butter, I enjoyed that too, but as someone who likes my garlic bread buttery, I would’ve loved just a smidge more butter. However, I would definitely have this as my go-to.”
TESCO: Could’ve done with a little more butter (Image: Holly Kintuka)READ NEXT
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